“We have and have made arrangements with a retired teacher to take the job for the first six weeks,” Paula, the elementary school principal, answered. “And all that other business will take care of itself, we have no doubt. So?”
“Yes, I’m interested.” Amanda’s heart kicked in an extra beat as she fought the urge to do a wiggle dance in her chair.
“Amanda, we are offering you the job. We have the contract drawn up. The salary comes with health insurance. You will have to add dental and vision, but that will all be decided later when you put your baby on the policy,” Victor said.
“Oh! Then you are hiring me right now?”
“Yes.” Victor grinned. “Are you accepting?”
“Yes, I am. Where do I sign?”
Kate waited on the porch with Hattie and Gracie that evening. She was every bit as antsy as Gracie, and nothing helped. Not ice cream or playing games or counting stars or trying to figure out how far the moon was kept them from wondering what was going on at the school.
When Jamie parked her van, Hattie raised a hand into the air. “Well, praise the Lord, they are home. I called Victor twice and he won’t tell me anything. All he’ll say is that it’s classified. The old coot. I’ll get him back.”
Kate tried to read Amanda and Jamie’s body language, but they didn’t give a single thing away until they reached the porch. Jamie opened up her arms to Gracie and said, “You ready to move, kiddo?”
Gracie torpedoed herself into Jamie’s arms. “This is just what I wanted, Mama.” She planted kisses all over her mother’s face.
“So you got the job?” Kate exhaled loudly. “Amanda?”
“I will start work six weeks after school begins.”
“And you will let me babysit, right?” Hattie asked. “I’ll come right here to the cabin so you don’t have to take the baby out in the weather.”
“Hattie, you are an absolute godsend. I’m so lucky to have you. They said if I work through the summer, I get extra pay.” Amanda beamed. “I’m hoping that when I wake up, this not a dream. I can even take the baby with me in the summer.”
How could Conrad have treated these two women the way he did? Kate could understand why he was such a son of a bitch with her. He’d married her for money and when he didn’t get it, he rebelled like a petulant child. But Jamie and Amanda hadn’t been born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths, and they damn sure didn’t deserve what he had put them through.
“Is it real? They won’t change their minds?” Gracie whispered.
“We are really going to live here.” Jamie hugged her again. “I promise. We should call Mama Rita. I think you should tell her.”
Gracie squirmed out of her mother’s arms and danced around the porch. “Can we tell her right now?”
Jamie handed her the phone. “Don’t hang up when you get done. I want to talk to her, too.”
Kate hugged both Amanda and Jamie. “Congratulations to both of you. To all three of you, really—Gracie wanted this as much as you did.”
“I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what you could do at the school.” Hattie glanced over at Kate.
Kate patted the elderly woman gently on the shoulder. “I have a job in Fort Worth.”
“But I can see in your face that you’d like to stay here. My mama used to tell me to never close a door until you see what’s on the other side of it,” Hattie said.
Kate had heard that before, but it really sank in that warm summer evening. She didn’t really have two doors before her like in that old television show. A beyond-comfortable lifestyle had been given to her, one that she knew and could do. She imagined an extra door in her office. If she chose to step through it into a very different office, would she have regrets? But if she didn’t, wouldn’t she always wonder?
“Don’t ever look back and wonder if you might have been happier if you’d chosen another pathway to walk,” Hattie whispered.
Before Kate could answer, her phone pinged. She glanced down at it to see a message from Waylon. Shall we send them flowers tomorrow?
She smiled and sent one back. Already done and balloons for Gracie.
The next one said, Pretty sure of yourself. Call me when things quiet down?
She sent him a smiley face symbol.
“That was Waylon, wasn’t it? I can tell by the expression on your face,” Hattie said.
“I’d make a poor poker player.” Kate smiled.
“When it comes to Waylon, I can read you like a book, girl.”
Kate was so jealous of Jamie and Amanda that evening that it was a wonder she wasn’t the same shade of green as the Hulk. They knew what they wanted and went after it. Kate knew what she wanted, but a nagging fear kept her from being willing to make a change. Pure insanity. She’d been in Bootleg less than a month. Not long ago she and Conrad’s other two wives were at his funeral. That was not enough time for her to even consider a drastic change.
Decision based on the heart. Hattie’s words stuck in her mind. The only time that Kate had done that, she’d wound up married to Conrad.
Be honest, the voice in her head argued. You weren’t paying a bit of attention to your heart in those days. That was one time your mother was right.
Kate pushed the voice away. “Hey, I’ve got a bottle of chilled wine waiting, and Hattie brought over a sinful chocolate cake.”
“And I can have milk with my cake, right?” Gracie was still wiggling in excitement.
With an arm around Gracie’s shoulders, Kate whispered, “Out of a stemmed wineglass, so you can pretend.”
Dear Lord, what have I done? was the first thought in Jamie’s mind that Saturday morning when she awoke. The thrill of getting the job had passed, and the reality of actually moving from the city to Bootleg set in. All through the process of making up her mind and then signing the contract, she’d thought she was making the right decision even if it did seem rushed. But that morning she doubted herself. She moaned and immediately checked to be sure that she had not wakened Gracie.
Her child was gone! For a split second she panicked, and then she heard her out in the house laughing with Kate. Jamie hopped out of bed, and something fluttered in her peripheral vision. She whipped around to find Gracie’s balloons straining against the strings holding them down. Right beside them was her bouquet of daisies. The congratulatory card was unsigned, but there was no doubt in her mind that Kate and Waylon had sent them.
“Stop it!” she scolded herself, not the balloons. “You made this choice. Now plow ahead without regrets.”
She sniffed the air and caught a whiff of warm maple syrup, bacon, and coffee mixed together. Pancakes and coffee sounded like a right fine way to start the day.
Neither Amanda nor Kate looked a bit better than she did.
“Did we do the right thing?” Amanda asked.
Jamie sucked in a lungful of air and said, “Of course we did. It’s normal to second-guess such a drastic change.”
“Not as radical as if Kate said she wasn’t going back to Fort Worth,” Amanda said.